Mark’s Introduction to the Holy Spirit
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19
We moved to a small church home closer to our home when our boys were four and six. Our Pastor was about our age. We began to hear about “The Walk to Emmaus” retreat for church leaders based on Luke 24:13-32. Brother Stan, our Pastor, came to our home and explained to us the effect this weekend had on him and his ministry and urged us to go.
The situation in our home was very tense; Mark was working in his Father’s business with his two elder brothers. His hours were extremely long and relationships within the company were strained to the breaking point. Mark brought all the conflict home and could not let it go. I even tried taking the boys to the lake house for a month to ease the tension, but we were not the problem.
An elderly couple in our church dropped out of the weekend retreat due to his health and Mark was asked to go. We were not prepared, but Mark was determined. I was ready for anything that might help us. The men went first and two weeks later the ladies (spouses) went.
No sooner than Mark literally flew out the door to go, Jonathan developed a strange out of nowhere fever! It kept going up in spite of medication, rest, fluids, etc. My in-laws lived next door, but my father-in-law had just come home from triple by-pass surgery so I was not going to bother them. At 104 degrees, I put Jonathan in a lukewarm bath and it finally broke! The next day he was “rung-out”, but suffered no more symptoms. About one a.m. the next morning Bobby woke up screaming at the top of his voice because the electricity in our huge home was off. I ran down to get Jonathan out of his crib. He was awake but calm. His huge “owl” eyes spoke of his bewilderment. I will never forget the sight of my six year old gripping the windowsill like it was the only link to life! We all piled into my bed for the rest of the night. I had committed to bringing food and singing in our very small choir Sunday morning. The weekend had been an emotional nightmare for me.
That night Mark appeared at our front door with this angelic expression on his face wanting to talk, pray and kiss! He had gone short-tempered, demanding, non-communicative and just plain mad at the world, including me! I took one look at his face and wanted to say, who are you and what have you done with my husband!
Prayer: Teach us as couples to take time for prayer together and thus avoid difficulty and heart ache.
Thought: When your spouse has had a mountain top spiritual experience and it seems quite apparent that you suffered the spiritual warfare for it can you respond appropriately?
What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19
We moved to a small church home closer to our home when our boys were four and six. Our Pastor was about our age. We began to hear about “The Walk to Emmaus” retreat for church leaders based on Luke 24:13-32. Brother Stan, our Pastor, came to our home and explained to us the effect this weekend had on him and his ministry and urged us to go.
The situation in our home was very tense; Mark was working in his Father’s business with his two elder brothers. His hours were extremely long and relationships within the company were strained to the breaking point. Mark brought all the conflict home and could not let it go. I even tried taking the boys to the lake house for a month to ease the tension, but we were not the problem.
An elderly couple in our church dropped out of the weekend retreat due to his health and Mark was asked to go. We were not prepared, but Mark was determined. I was ready for anything that might help us. The men went first and two weeks later the ladies (spouses) went.
No sooner than Mark literally flew out the door to go, Jonathan developed a strange out of nowhere fever! It kept going up in spite of medication, rest, fluids, etc. My in-laws lived next door, but my father-in-law had just come home from triple by-pass surgery so I was not going to bother them. At 104 degrees, I put Jonathan in a lukewarm bath and it finally broke! The next day he was “rung-out”, but suffered no more symptoms. About one a.m. the next morning Bobby woke up screaming at the top of his voice because the electricity in our huge home was off. I ran down to get Jonathan out of his crib. He was awake but calm. His huge “owl” eyes spoke of his bewilderment. I will never forget the sight of my six year old gripping the windowsill like it was the only link to life! We all piled into my bed for the rest of the night. I had committed to bringing food and singing in our very small choir Sunday morning. The weekend had been an emotional nightmare for me.
That night Mark appeared at our front door with this angelic expression on his face wanting to talk, pray and kiss! He had gone short-tempered, demanding, non-communicative and just plain mad at the world, including me! I took one look at his face and wanted to say, who are you and what have you done with my husband!
Prayer: Teach us as couples to take time for prayer together and thus avoid difficulty and heart ache.
Thought: When your spouse has had a mountain top spiritual experience and it seems quite apparent that you suffered the spiritual warfare for it can you respond appropriately?
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